Diagnosis, Prognosis, Treatment. 961 



COWS become ill after repeated pregnancies. The licking disease 

 which occurs in the course of gastric catarrh is not continuous ; 

 rheumatic affections, especially articular rheumatism, appear 

 in acute attacks with febrile symptoms, and affect usually the 

 higher joints of the feet, while callus formation is absent, es- 

 pecially on the ribs. — Actinomycosis of the facial bones is 

 differentiated by being mostly unilateral and limited in extent, 

 also by the fact that the other parts of the body are free from 

 disease. Eachitis is already excluded by the different age of 

 the animals. (According to Marcone a systematic quantitative 

 determination of the urinary phosphates may afford diagnostic 

 information, but must be made with reference to the quality 

 of the fodder.) 



In regions where the disease is enzootic already the very 

 first symptoms give certain indications for a diagnosis, but 

 this becomes positive only when softening of the bones can 

 be demonstrated. 



Prognosis. As long as extensive deformities or fractures 

 have not occurred, the animals are not too exhausted and an 

 appropriate regulation of their hygienic conditions can be 

 carried out, the symptoms may be expected to retrogress, but 

 under other conditions a gradual aggravation of the trouble 

 must be expected. When the animals can no longer rise or 

 when fractures or considerable deformities have occurred, im- 

 provement cannot be obtained by any treatment. 



According to Krabbe 281 out of 3,240 sick cows, or 8.6%, were killed in Nor- 

 way in the year 1877 as incurable. According to Bongartz, the frequency of cures 

 is 20-25%, while Eudofsky observed about 16% of losses during an epizootic in 

 Moravia (1905). 



Treatment. The removal of the affected animals into an- 

 other region with favorable conditions of soil can be carried- 

 out only in the rarest cases, although this procedure seems 

 'adapted to secure healing of the disease in cases which have 

 not progressed too far. It is also only rarely possible to 

 arrange for a complete change in feeding; it will rather be 

 necessary to limit endeavors to a partial change of feed, in 

 which the daily amount of food-stuffs which in spite of un- 

 favorable conditions of soil contain comparatively much lime, 

 must be increased considerably (see p. 933). In this respect 

 the following must principally be considered : Clover hay, good 

 meadow hay, esparsette hay, bean-, pea-, lupine-, buckwheat- 

 straw, perhaps some waste from oil factories (see p. 933), 

 especially when there is a deficiency in phosphorus in the feed. 

 ■Green feed or pasturing oh good pastures also influence the 

 course of the disease favorably, as has been observed in 

 the extra-European osteomalacia of equides (Grandmougin, 

 Sourrel). Pasturing has the disadvantage that the motor dis- 

 turbances increase at first, and that in some animals they only 



Vol. 1—61 



